News Six Flags Great Adventure Steals Christmas
- Thread starter horsesboy
- Start date
wow, does that mean six flags hated christmas?, is the ceo ebenezer scrooge or they just hired him?
The events probably don't make money with too many passholders being the bulk of attendance. They probably figure cutting it won't hurt pass sales much if at all.
Sure, but seeing the chain surrender to the concept that the only business that matters is pass and group sales should be super concerning. Other parks and chains seem to still be drawing attendance well beyond those categories, but Six Flags seems to be waiving the white flag.
I tend to believe that the continued existence of cheap meal and drink plans are the real culprit here. Other parks and chains are making money off pass members when they visit—Six Flags often is not—in fact, the inverse is true—in the short-term, increased visitation from pass members actually cuts into margins. A really perverse incentive has been created by the success of these programs. The parks' finances depend far more on getting people to buy-in for a season with all the add-ons rather than driving actual visitation throughout the season.
Last edited:
I know kings island winterfest is wildly popular; and winterfest at carowinds has been getting more popular each year. Hopefully they don’t cut those parks.
Agreed, and probably loose money because of it. I wonder if any holiday events will remain this year.
I think that Six Flags And Cedar Fair doomed themselves years ago by including these events in season passes, unlike Busch Gardens where you have to pay for it separately, or pay a much more expensive pass. Could we see winter events come back years from now but with this new pay structure? I think it’s a possibility, and that it makes more sense to take something away for a year or two then offer it again at a premium price, rather than just saying “look what you now have to pay extra for starting this year!” After all look at the backlash of haunt maze premiums, where they are taking that exact approach.
None of this is consumer friendly, but it might be more sustainable in the long run if they ever do return these events. Especially with the low-ball pricing they are putting forth on passes next year, maybe prestige membership will have more incentive in the future if they include these events.
It might be that the only way they can make money off these events is by weaning their cheap passes off all the special events by reopening them in the future as separate tickets. It seems like the next step would be to limit meal/drink plans to spring/summer days only so the big Halloween/Xmas events are straight ancillary income for the parks.
I’ve heard rumblings that Carowinds’ event is expected to still go on this year, but offerings will be cut back significantly. Other than many of the shows being cut, I don’t know the extent of the cuts.
I expect to see this at all parks with WinterFest this year.
Especially for a park that is trying to be a full resort. If they had a resort hotel (not the glamping) that’s a big revenue driver (similar to how Hersheypark or Dollywood have supporting hotels that drive business during the Holidays). Not saying a hotel (or two) would solve all their problems, but if it justifies more “four season” visits, then that should be a high priority.
It feels like this park can't go a single month without something being taken away. There's been almost nothing but epic bed shitting since the Fright Fest Extreme debacle of yesteryear. And what is there to show for it, an Executive Chef, a refurbished electrical shed, crab fries (not that these are bad things by any means, but come on)? For a place that's been circling the drain in terms of goodwill, there certainly haven't been many attempts at restoration. I saw Holiday In The Park vibrantly displayed on the operating calendar as recently as yesterday and foolishly thought Six Flags might have been throwing us a bone for all that they've removed. Instead, they used that 24 hour time frame to get rid of more.
I am truly glad that I put in the effort to visit Great Adventure so many times in 2024. As much ado as there was about a somewhat lacking 50th anniversary celebration, that was light years ahead of what we've gotten in 2025. Cheap pass prices be damned - I feel completely disrespected as a consumer, no matter how amazing next season's deal may be.
I am truly glad that I put in the effort to visit Great Adventure so many times in 2024. As much ado as there was about a somewhat lacking 50th anniversary celebration, that was light years ahead of what we've gotten in 2025. Cheap pass prices be damned - I feel completely disrespected as a consumer, no matter how amazing next season's deal may be.
I’ve been saying this for what feels like years now. There’s only so much of that you can do until you end up losing so much money on that.
The challenge is there's no easy way to walk this back. It's like stores constantly doing sales and coupons to the point where it's just baked into the offer price.
You either rip off the bandaid and take a sizeable revenue hit or you make odd service changes until you wean people off the plans. Neither are great ways to make your customers happy.
I mean about the only thing they could do is really limit the menu to tenders, burgers, and hot dogs.
The easiest would be to just do away with it for a year, and reintroduce it with a new name and new price.
I said it in the SFOG Christmas thread and it goes double here-- they NEED the longer off season to get things fixed up and back to basics. I know I loved Holiday in the Park, but it was something that was subject to weather closures and probably just broke even most of the time. The peak seaosn then would suffer because of the shortened downtime for ride maintenance-- delayed openings or single train operations. It can still come back once the basics are back to what they should be-- all it would take in most cases is additional trains so one can always be in the maintenance/rebuild phase while at least two are operational, but at this time they don't have that luxury.
In the mean time the bargain passes will go a LONG way to make it up to the customer base.
In the mean time the bargain passes will go a LONG way to make it up to the customer base.
If this is the case, open the parks later in the year. For example, SFOG opened March 15th 2025, while Great Adventure opened March 29th 2025. Easter weekend (April 20th) may have been more ideal.
Although that said, I think most people expect a rocky start to the season, and some big rides out of commission for longer overhauls. Obviously, the water rides aren't open, and some projects are ongoing while the park is closed during the week (exception any weekday Spring Break operations). I feel like cutting Christmas events (or Halloween events) are much more risky than ending March operations, especially since there aren't much special events or entertainment during that period.
Last edited:
They could be like Dorney and not open until May, but Easter (late March/early April) has traditionally been the start of GA’s season.
Christmas was nice, but running so many coasters then not having them ready to open in spring was just not sustainable.
Christmas was nice, but running so many coasters then not having them ready to open in spring was just not sustainable.
Easter 2026 is April 5th. If closing day is Nov 2nd 2025 for this year, that's just over five months (22 weeks) with the park closed to look forward to.*
*(Not saying that will happen; as far as I know they haven't announced an opening date for 2025; but if it is Easter weekend that's how long it would be closed for. The other side of this coin is: how stretched thin are your FT-ers and maintenance staff?)
Last edited:
I think a big problem with cutting back the start of the season is that you lose a ton of group sales money. That definitely seems to keep things afloat that time of year at Kings Dominion at least.